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THE 



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Origin and «istory. 



J. C, JULIUS LANGBEIN. 



NEW YORK : 

Union Printing and Publishing Company. 

Copyright Secured According to Act of Congress, 1876. 



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AHBIOAN iLAG. 



ITS 



'RIGIN AND HISTORY. 



BY 



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J. C. JULIUS LANGBEIN. 



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NEW YORK : 

Union Printing and Publishing Company, 

no. 9 bible house, astor place. 

. 1876, 



[THE UBEAfcTJ 
OF COKQKBfaf 

[WAlHlN QTOlffl ^ \ \W^ 

PREFACE. 



XT either preface nor apology is necessary to 
introduce to the American People, at any 
time, but more especially during the Centen- 
nial Year of their Republic, a theme so thor- 
oughly American in feeling and sentiment as 
the origin and history of the American Flag. 

The subject is so purely a production of 
American talent and genius, that the Author 
proudly and confidently issues it forth at this 
time, not only to Americans, but to all Nation- 
alities. 



THE 



AMERICAN FLAG. 



ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 



** O, say can you see, by the dawns early light, 

When so proudly we watched for the twilight's last gleaming, 
The stripes and bright stars through the perilous flight, 

And the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ; 
And the rocket's red glare, as the bombs burst in air, 

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there, 
O, say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, 

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." 



In every age, and in every state of society, whether ancient or 
modern, Nations have had recourse to war, either as a necessity, or as 
a pursuit. Everywhere and at all times, the strong have sought by 
means of their brute strength and force of numbers, to impose upon 
the weak ; and in return the weak, by superior skill and discipline, 
have striven to overcome that strength and force; hence the necessity 
of wars. 

The poetries, the histories, the orations of antiquity, all resound 
with the clang of arms, their grandest heart-bursts dwelling rather 
upon the rough actions of war and rapine, than upon the gentler arts 
and lovlier graces of peace. The Old Testament teems with the nar- 
ration of brave exploits and deeds of heroic enterprise by patriots of 
Israel, while the New Testament, inspired by the life and teachings of 
our meek and suffering Redeemer, often selects the soldier and his 
weapons to tipify and illustrate heroism and duty, apart from the 



world, its vanities and strifes. Hence, "as such things must needs 
be," we recognize in war, a profession — honorable and glorious if its 
cause is right and just, and also a necessity that when war was active- 
ly undertaken, it should be so under some banner whose swaying folds 
could be seen by the host, as the central point upon which they must 
rally — signalling to them victory, defeat, or doubtful issue, according 
as it was advanced or drawn back, or momentarily eclipsed. Some- 
times it might have been but the penion of a leader, and was only a 
rallying signal to one particular faction of the army, but gradually 
from that developing into one common flag or banner, around which 
his followers might gather when he himself was lost to their sight 
amid the din and conflict of the strife ; and so it has become a habit or 
custom among nations and bodies of men, when they unite with the 
intention of holding themselves out to the world as a seperate nation, 
or body, to establish for themselves an ensign or standard, with a cer- 
tain device or devices thereon, emblematical of their traits, habits, 
courage, or aspirations, and by which it or they may be recognized 
and distinguished. 

We read of banners and ensigns constantly throughout the Old Testa- 
ment, and the most ancient allusion upon this subject may be found in 
the fourth book of Moses, called Numbers, first chapter and fifty-second 
verse, where is recorded what may rightfully be considered a divine 
sanction, and where we are told that during the wanderings of the 
children of Israel in the wilderness, the Lord commanded Moses to tell 
them that " they shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, 
and every man by his own standard throughout the hosts ;" and in the 
second chapter of the same book, second verse, the Lord commanded 
Moses and Aaron to order every man of the children of Israel "to 
pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of his father's house;" and 
in the third verse of the same chapter, it seems He ordered that, " on 
the east side, toward the rising of the sun, shall they of the standard of 
the tribe of Judah pitch throughout their armies." It seems the vari- 
ous standards of the tribes were pitched each under different captains ; 
and in the forty-ninth chapter of the book of Genesis, we are in- 
formed of the different insignias that the Twelve Tribes bore upon 
their banners. 

The records of the Egyptians — those strange people, in whose do- 
ings and customs an interest has only lately been taken, show evidences 
of such a custom having prevailed among them, when in hostile ar- 



ray the mighty armies of Pharoah advanced upon the invader, or they 
themselves spread their conquests over neighboring territories. The 
ancient Persians also adopted ensigns at a very early date, as explora- 
tions go to prove ; and the Greek historian, Xenophon, mentions in 
the celebrated raid which he records of the handful of Greek warriors, 
who penetrated that empire by an almost unexampled prowess, that a 
great number of standards were captured by the enemy. He likewise 
describes the royal standard of Persia to have been a golden eagle 
raised on a spear or pole, while that of the Greek Republic of Athens 
was the figure of an animal fixed upon the end of a spear, as if im- 
paled — an emblem of that cruelty, which, in a greater or less extent, 
is characteristic of warfare. The Greecio-Egyptian standard resembled 
a round-headed knife. The Gauls, co stimulate the courage of their 
army, are said to have carried around with them some fierce animal, 
such as a lion or bear, or other sanguinary brute. 

The military standards of the Romans were different from the flags, 
colors and ensigns of modern warfare and of our own times ; they 
were carvings in wood, with an eagle or some other figure elevated at 
the end of a tall lance or pole. Their various forms are only known 
to us by the representations of them on medals. The first one was 
very insignificant ; it was simply a bundle of hay or straw, to show 
that they had been, or might be threshed or withered, yet, neverthe- 
less, the seed could spring up and bear fruit. They afterwards bore a 
wolf, probably to memoralize the manner in which Romulus was nur- 
tured in his childhood. Subsequently they bore a cross, above which 
was a hand and below an oval shield, upon which were represented 
warlike deities adopted from the Grecians. They finally adopted the 
eagle, which they continue to bear. . 

The Norman rovers of the sea had banners, and it is recorded that, 
in 878, Alfred the Great, of England, captured a very celebrated stand- 
ard of the Danes, called "The Raven." Under their banners much 
pillage, rapine, and blood, was freely scattered over the western shores 
of the Eastern world, and victory never perched upon them without 
fearful suffering to those whom they attacked ; so that a glimpse of 
their banners, as seen from the land as they appeared in the distant 
offing, was generally a signal for flight, and always one for commo- 
tion. 

The Emperor Constantine, who fixed his seat of government upon 
the western shore of the Byzantium, who was surnamed "The Great," 



it is said, was, on the eve of battle, when suddenly there appeared to 
him a luminous standard in the sky, in the form of a cross, with the 
legend underneath, " In hoc signo vinces ; " "In this sign thou con- 
querest ; " which sign was, of course, immediately adopted, and a 
favorable issue of his cause followed. When Waldemar the Second, 
of Denmark, was engaged in a great battle with the Livonians (1219), 
it is also said that a sacred banner fell from heaven in the midst of the 
host, which revived the drooping spirits of his followers, so that they 
were victorious ; in memory of which event Waldemar instituted an 
order of knighthood called "The Danneborg," or, "The Strength 
of the Danes," at present the highest order of honor that the Danish 
monarch can invest him whom he delights to honor. 

The first banner in England of which we have any notice, was borne 
by the followers of Augustine at the interview he had with Ethelbert. 
They were described as bearing banners, upon which were displayed 
silver crosses and the picture of Christ. During the eleventh and 
twelfth centuries the banners were very large and fastened upon long 
poles, more like the mast of a ship than a modern flagstaff, as carried 
in front of a command. This was fixed upon a platform and carried in 
a car drawn by oxen. At the base of this pole was a small altar, 
where was stationed a priest, who celebrated mass each day, and ten 
knights, who attended with as many trumpets at their command, 
keepiug watch around it night and day. At Coton Moor, in the year 
638, such a cumbersome machine was used in what is known as the 
Battle of the Standard. Here, erected on a wagon, as described, and 
placed in the centre of the English army, w r ere displayed the standard 
of St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverly, and St. Wilfred of Ripon, 
three very powerful saints at that time, and at the top of the mast 
which held them forth to the army was a little casket containing a 
consecrated host, so denominated. 

The great importance attached to banners, in warlike times, was as 
we see supplemented in the middle ages by the sanction and sacred - 
ness of the Church. Further, they formed at that time also, to a very 
great extent, a connecting link between the laity and the clergy, inas- 
much as a great part of the warlike demonstrations of the time was un- 
dertaken in the name of religion, having not merely the sanction of the 
Church upon them, but holding its interests before them as the grand 
object of attainment. The Crusades were grand military exordia of 
the Church in which the banners of her advancing hosts were consecra- 



ted by rite and by symbol to her service, and held enchained the ener- 
gies of their followers. The religious sentiment it was which animated 
the most powerful military bodies of that day struggling against the 
enemies of a common faith. The contest was represented as it was 
recognized as being by the Crescent and the Cross — Christ and Ma- 
homet. 

We are told that the Knights Templars carried with them a standard 
which they called "Beauseant," which is described, as being simply 
divisions of black and white, with the symbolical rendering of the 
white, peace to their friends ; of the black, ill to their foes : their war. 
cry being identical with the name of their banner. In the monasteries 
and other religious retreats it was customary for the monks to preserve 
for occasions the flags and banners used by them. " The Gonfalon " 
was the banner of the Roman Catholic Church, and was carried in the 
Pope's army. "The Gonfalonier," or standard-bearer being a high 
State official in rank and emoluments of office. 

The flag of the celebrated Abbey of St. Dennis was called the Ori- 
flame, from the Latin aurum, gold, and fla?na, a flame. It was com- 
posed of apiece of red taffeta fixed on a golden spear, and cut into three 
joints, each of which was adorned with a tassel of green silk. When 
Louis Le Gros marched against the Emperor, Henry the Fifth, in the 
year 1124, he took along with him this banner, and from that time for 
nearly three centuries the French monarchs were in the habit, on the 
commencement of a war, of receiving this banner from the hands of the 
Abbot of St. Dennis, to whose care it was again returned at the close 
of hostilities. It is said to have been borne for the last time at the bat- 
tle of Montherry, which occurred on the 14th day of July, 1465. 

Later in the history of nations the banner acquired other uses and 
peculiar significance from the orders, the houses, or the governments 
that adopted it. At length, as consolidated governments absorbed all 
lesser independencies, banners became chiefly significant of national 
authority. Thus, in our day, each people and nation have their flag, 
and no civilized community to-day, nor any semi-civilized or even bar- 
barous one, on the face of the earth is without it. 

Some of the most lofty ideas are embodied on the banners of a na- 
tion : duty, self-sacrifice, daring, freedom, right and determination of 
purpose, and by and through symbols of this kind, appealing through 
the portico of a mystery, as it were, mankind have, whether conciously 
or unconsciously, moved toward their greatest achievements ; these ages 



being always marked as pre-eminent which are most apt in reading 
worth by its symbolisms and valor by its signs. A soldier's fidelity 
to his flag has in it a large attribute of the sublime, that supernal in- 
fluence which towers aloft in majesty over all circumstances of time or 
place, and amid the grandeur of nature impresses us with awe : for 
what shines forth most in the conditions of the immortal but this 
element, which is a constituent part of the heroic, holding forth to it 
likewise that immortality which in the eyes of mortals shines in fade- 
less lustre. It is his flag that seems to impart to the soldier not only 
his share in the national life it represents, but, also, an identity with it, 
Tattered, shot-torn, and smoke blackened, it may be, nevertheless to 
him it is a symbol of the highest value and importance — and more 
than a symbol — an engine with power to direct his thoughts and to 
concentrate his emotions so that a mighty host becomes grouped to 
him as one man, only a principle and idea having life before him. 
Its very rags and tatters are made glorious with memories of achieve- 
ments and with the history of. past successes. A nation's past is 
shadowed in its folds, and bright memories of victory and of duty he- 
roically performed, flash around it as the lightnings of heaven round 
the iron-bound point of a conductor ; or perhaps some recollections 
live in its drooping folds of a day of defeat and disaster, or of a time 
of oppression and suffering, and the rustle of these may beget sadness 
in the heart of the listener, but whichever way it may be that the sol- 
dier feels moved, yet the hot blood throbs at his heart and the battle- 
light reddens on his brow, as he gazes upon it, till again he feels ready, 
if needs be, to fight in its defence. The passion which arises in the 
heart of the soldier for his flag is beautifully illustrated in a story told 
of a young Prussian soldier, whom the First Napoleon observed among 
the wounded, pressing his flag to his bosom. " Gentlemen," said the 
Emperor, kindling at the sight, and addressing his staff, "you see that 
a soldier has a sentiment approaching idolatry for his flag. It is the 
object of his worship, as a present from his mistress. Render funeral 
honors at once to this young man. I regret that I do not know hi? 
name, that I might write to his family. Do not take away his flag, 
its silken folds will be an honorable shroud for him/' 

In our own country the gifted and lamented Andrew Johnson, who 
was so faithful to his country in a time of great trial, beautifully yet 
sadly, though eloquently illustrated this passion for the American ■ 
In the course of a speech in Congress during the war. he said ; 



"Sir, I intend to stand by that Flag, and by the Union of which it 
is the emblem. I have been told, and I have heard it repeated, that 
this Union is gone. It has been said in this chamber that it is in the 
cold sweat of death, that in fact it is really dead, and merely lying in 
state, waiting for the funeral obsequies to be performed. If this is so, 
and the war that has been made upon me in consequence of advoca- 
ting the Constitution and the Union is to result in my overthrow and 
destruction, and that flag, that glorious flag, the emblem of the 
Union, which was borne by Washington through a seven years strug- 
gle, shall be struck from the Capitol and trailed in the dust, when 
this Union is interred, I want no more honorable winding sheet than 
that brave old Flag, and no more glorious grave than to be interred in 
the tomb of the Union" These were brave words to be uttered by 
Andrew Johnson or any one else at the time they were spoken, and 
the American people admire and honor him and revere his memory 
for them. 

To an imaginative and reflective mind, when a nation's flag is seen, 
the very nation itself is presented : and whatever the particular insig- 
nia, he reads chiefly in it the government, the principles, the truths, 
the history, the life which belongs to that nation. When the tricolors 
of France waive forth on the breeze, we see the Republic of France. 
When the Union-jack is displayed, we behold Great Britain. When 
the new-found banner of Italy is unfurled, we see before us resurrec- 
ted Italy, and the presence of that greatest of patriots, the red-shirted 
Garibaldi. 

When the black white and red horizontal bars are seen, we know 
that the German Empire is represented. When a triangular flag, the 
hypothenuse of which extends from the top of the staff, to the top of 
the flag is seen in yellow with a large diamond, we know that China is 
represented. When a blood red flag, with a full grown white moon is 
seen, then Morocco is distinguished. When a blue white and blue bar 
wifh the sun in the centre of the white bar is displayed, we behold the 
Argentine Republic, and when a red flag with a Maltese cross is seen, 
we behold Switzerland. But it is not alone the piece of bunting we 
behold, that is the least in our thoughts ; it is the principles which it 
represents, that is in reality its real object, its sign and symbol. 

Having thus briefly sketched the history and traditions of flags and 
banners, we now come to the " Star Spangled Banner " itself, our own 
glorious national ensign, the old flag. How its very name thrills the 



IO 

heart, fires the soul, and nerves the arm : the Stars and Stripes ! the 
Jlag of Liberty ! the Banner of the Skies ! 

"Our conntry's flag with lines of blood, 
Forever telling as it waves : 
How side by side our father's stood, 
And died to plant it o'er their graves." 

" Before us rose and with us grew, 
A rainbow of the lovliesthue, 
Of these bright colors each divine, 
And fit for that celestial sign, 
For Freedom's hand hath blended them 
Like tints in an immortal gem. 

" One tint is of the sunbeam's dyes, 
One the blue depth of seraph's eyes, 
One the pure spirit's veil of white, 
Has robed in radiance of its light : 
The three so mingled do beseem 
The texture of an heavenly dream." 

God bless its memories and forever protect it from enemies, whether 
on sea or on shore, within the sacred precincts of its home, or wherever 
the winds of propitious heaven may bear it. May the hand of the 
traitor that dares to pull it down be forever palsied^ and the tongue of 
the miscreant who would dare defame it, forever cleave to the roof of 
his mouth ; for the Union, of which it is the emblem, was established 
by our noble forefathers, and cemented with their blood. To us have 
they confided the lofty trust of guarding and upholding it. What ob- 
ligation can be more binding upon us, or more sacred to our lives. 
For over three-quarters of a century it has commanded the respect of 
all nations and races on land and sea, wherever the traces of civilization 
have appeared ; penetrating the darkest recesses of earth, and carrying 
with it new aspirations towards life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. No other flag in the world is the herald of so glorious a message, 
or comes on an errand of such blissful import to humanity, offering a 
home and an asylum to the oppressed everywhere. 

Its greatest glory is, that it throws the folds of its protection over the 
humblest and weakest of its people, and vindicates the rights of the 
poor and powerless, as faithfully as those of the rich and powerful ; and 
the stars upon it are to enslaved and oppressed nations the bright 
morning stars of heaven, aud the stripes upon it arc the beams of morn- 
ing light ; as at early dawn the stars shine forth even as it grows light, 



II 

and then the sun advances, that light breakes into streaming lines of 
color, the glowing red and intense white striving together, and ribbing 
the horizon with its bright bars, so, the dear old flag, its stars and 
beams of many colored lights shine out together, and, wherever this 
flag co*mes, and men behold it, they see in its sacred folds no ramping 
lion, no ferocious wolf, no embattled castle, or insignia of imperial au- 
tocratic authority, but they see the symbol of light. It is the banner 
of dawn. It means Liberty, Freedom, Equality ; and the galley-slave, 
the poor, oppressed conscript, the trodden-down creature of foreign 
despotism, sees in the American flag the Mecca of his hopes. 

When Freedom from her mountain height 

Unfurled her standard to the air, 
She tore the azure robes of night 

And set the stars of glory there. 

She mingled with her gorgeous dyes 
The milky baldric of the skies, 
And stripped its pure celestial white 
With streakings of the morning light. 
Then from her mansion in the sun, 
She called her eagle bearer down, 
And gave unto his mighty hand 
The symbol of her chosen land ! 

Majestic monarch of the cloud ! 

Who rearest aloft thy regal form, 
To bear the tempest-trumpings loud, 
And see the lightning lances driven, 

Where stride the warriors of the storm 
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven — 
Child of the Sun, to thee 'tis given, 

To guard the banner of the free, 
To wend away the battle stroke, 

And bid its blendings shine upon, 
Like rainbow in the clouds of war, 

The harbinger of victory ! 

Flag of the brave, thy folds shall fly 
The sign of hope and triumph high. 



12 

When speaks the signal trumpet-tone, 
And the long line comes gleaming on, 
Ere yet the life-blood warm and wet 
Has dimm'd the glistening bayonet. 

Each soldier's eye still brightly turns 
To where the sky-born glories burn, 
And as his springing steps advance, 
Catch war and vengeance from the glance ; 
And when the cannon-mouthing loud 
Heaves in wild wreaths the battle-shroud, 
And glory salvos raise and fall 
Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall, 
Then shall thy meteor glances glow, 

And cowering foes shall sink beneath 
Each gallant arm that strikes below, 

That lovely messenger of death. 

Flag of the seas ! On ocean wave 
Thy stars shall glitter on the brave, 
When Death careering on the gale 
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail. 
And frighted waves rush wildly back 
Before the broadside's reeling rack. 
Each dying wanderer of the sea 
Shall look at once to Heaven and thee. 
And smile to see thy splendors fly, 
In triumph oe'r his closing eye. 

Flag of the free heart's hope and home, 
By angel hands to valor given, 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome 
And all thy hues were born in heaven. 
Forever float that standard sheet, 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
With freedom's soil beneath our feet 

And freedom's banner streaming o'er us ! 

Are these magnificent lines to be taken as mere flowery rhetoric, 
without practical bearing in sense or application? Is it to be regarded 
as mere bombast ? God forbid. 



13 

The world at large can never grow weary of listening to rhapsodies 
composed on a subject such as this, nor can it grow weary in the task 
of tracing the progress of that American liberty which shall one day, 
as surely as the bright sun shines aloft, become the possession of all 
mankind. 

Little more than two centuries ago, a band of pilgrims crossed the 
ocean, to find in a wild and foreign shore, that refuge which they vainly 
sought in their own land for freedom of thought and of action ; yet 
sad to relate, but even to Plymouth Rock the old spirit pursued them. 

Our blood, even yet, fires with indignation when we remember by 
what measures of tyranny and oppression the mother country actually 
drove her colonies to adopt a course which seemed an almost desperate 
one ; but it was the only alternative, or they must have let that princi- 
ple perish which had grown as the fibre of their hearts and became a 
part of themselves. None understood their fearful alternative better, 
or regarded it with more respect and admiration than Lord Chatham, 
who in his celebrated speech in the British Parliment, in praise of the 
American Congress assembled at Philadelphia, made use of the follow- 
ing remarkable language : "When your lordships look at the papers 
transmitted to us from America ; when you consider their decency, 
firmness and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to 
make it your own. For myself I must declare and avow that in all 
my readings and observations, and it has been my favorite study — I 
have read Thucydids and have admired and studied the master spirits 
of the world — I say I must declare that, for solidity of reasoning, force 
of sagacity and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of 
difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in prefer- 
ence to the general Congress of Philadelphia. I trust it is obvious to 
your lordships that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to 
establish despotism over such a mighty continental nation, must be 
vain, must be fatal." 

The strength of centuries was in the old flint lock muskets and rusty 
words of our forefathers; the ragged continental army fought the 
fight of the world— the battle of millions — of all nations ; it was the 
struggle of millions by a few thousands ; a single drop of that long- 
wished-for stream for whose waters the earth panted : the stream of 
Liberty ! 

And the heart and soul of the people of all nations were with us. 
The grave of the martyred Kosciusco is made of a handful of earth \ 



from every battle-field of long suffering Poland. So was our monu- 
ment of freedom cemented by the blood of almost every people, 
France sent us her noble, chivalrous young Lafayette. Poland her pa- 
triotic Kosciusco. Germany her lion-hearted Baron Stuben and De- 
Kalb. Scotland her Mercer and her Sterling. Thus was the precious 
jewel of freedom, so often lost and so often found, so often washed by 
the priceless blood of heroes, so often dimmed by the prejudices of 
men, saved once more. 

" The starry flag, 'neath which they fought, 
On many a bloody day, 
From their old graves shall rouse them not, 
For they have passed away." 

What is this solemn sound we hear? 

It breaks upon a nation's ear 

Like ocean's sob upon the shore. 

The wail of storms whose wrath is o'er; 

From every lofty mountain grand 

It swells and rolls through all our land. 

A country mourning o'er its slain, 
Who gave their lives — and not in vain — 
Since in its heart their mem'ry blooms 
Fresh as these flowers upon their tombs ; 
Their toil is o'er, their labors cease, 
In war they died — but died for peace. 

They bravely fought and nobly fell, 
And Fame their glorious deeds shall tell; 
Where she decrees a crown of bay 
No power on earth her hand can stay, 
And on these graves a wreath is laid 
No storm can change, no time can fade. 

Where she has placed this deathless crown 
Let woman cast her roses down, 
And love and Fame together stand, 
A guard of honor hand in hand, 
Around these graves where heroes lie 
Who fought for right, nor feared to die. 



15 

De Soto, a wild knight -errant, once sallied forth with a band of ad- 
venturers to find the spring of eternal life and youth ; whoever drank of 
its waters would never die, and the old should grow young and beau- 
tiful again. He did not discover it, however, never thinking that the 
country he sought it in, contained the spring after all ; and behold ! it 
was found by a handful of pilgrims from a strange land ; the ever fresh 
spring of whose water the weary nations of the earth shall come to 
drink, and grow young again, and never die ; the refreshing, spark- 
ling fountain of liberty, in our own beloved land and under our own 
starry banner, 

" Our country first, our glory and our pride, 

Land of our hopes ; land where our fathers died, 
When in the right, we'll keep thy honor bright : 
When in the wrong, we'll die to set it right." 

The first step taken by a newly-formed nation, after perfecting the 
scheme of its internal organization, is to adopt some symbolic device 
which shall serve to distinguish its representatives in their intercourse 
with the outside world, and in the east end of the main building at the 
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia is a design of the progressive 
manner in which our National Flag was evolved out of the multitude 
of heraldic suggestions furnished by the American Colonies, which 
formed the original confederation. It certainly represents a brilliant 
and splendid "trophy." 

The central device suggests the well-known idea of the poet Drake, 
of the "azure robe of night" in which Freedom "placed the stars of 
glory " in constructing the American Flag. That the gleaming of the 
starry baldric over the bivouacs of our Revolutionary forefathers sug- 
gested ideas of the twilight of a glorious future which was to arise from 
their patriotic efforts may be readily imagined, and some fancy that 
the conception of our flag was produced in that poetic manner. But 
opinions vary on this point. There is a striking coincidence between 
its design and the coat-of-arms of General Washington, which consisted 
of three stars in the upper portion, and three bars running across the 
escutcheon, and it is thought by some that the flag was derived from 
this heraldic design. 

On the fourth day of July, 1776, that immortal document, The 
Declaration of Independence, was heralded forth, foreboding doom and 
disaster to tyrants. For more than a year, the colonies had been at 



i6 

war with the mother country, but until this time there had been no 
American flag, no national ensign, and before the adoption of the pres- 
ent national flag, a variety of banners were borne by our colonial an- 
cesters as emblematic of their combination in resistance to tyranny. 
The flag of the mother country still covered us as during all our colo- 
nial period, and each State that so chose had a seperate and significant 
State banner. The battle of Breeds of Bunker Hill (as it was called), 
strange as it may seem, was fought under a red flag by the Continental 
troops bearing the motto, "come if you dare." In march, 1775, a 
Union flag with a red field was hoisted in New York, bearing the in- 
scription on one side of ''George Rex and the Liberties of America, ; ' 
and upon the reverse, "No Popery." General Israel Putnam raised, 
on Prospect Hill, July 18th, 1875, a flag bearing on one side a motto 
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, " Qui transtidit sastinet," on 
the other, " An Appeal to Heaven " — an appeal well taken and amply 
sustained. In October, 1775, the floating batteries of Boston bore a 
flag with the latter motto, and a pine-tree upon a white field, with the 
Massachusetts emblem. Some of the Colonies used, in 1775, a flag 
with a rattlesnake coiled as if about to strike, and the motto, " Don't 
tread on me." The London Chronicle, an anti-ministerial paper, in 
its issue of January, 1776, describes as follows the flag of a captured 
American cruisaer • " In the Admiral cy Office is the flag of a Provincial 
privateer. The field is white bunting ; on the middle is a green pine- 
tree, and upon the opposite side is the motto ' An appeal to Heaven.' " 

On the first of January, 1776, the new Continental army was organ- 
ized, and on that day, for the first time, the grand Union flag of 
thirteen stripes was unfurled in the American camp at Cambridge. 
This flag bore the device of the English Union, which distinguishes 
the Royal standard of Great Britian, comprising the cross of St. George 
to denote England, and St, Andrew's cross to denote Scotland. It is 
said that some of the British regulars made the great mistake of sup- 
posing it was a token of submission to the King, whose speech had 
just been sent to the Americans. The Brittish Register, of 1776, says : 
They — the rebels — burnt the King's speech, and changed their colors 
from a plain, to a flag with thirteen stripes, as a symbol of the number 
and union of the Colonies." A letter from Boston, published in the 
Pennsylvania Gazette, in 1776, says: " The Union flag was raised on 
the 2d ; a compliment to the United Colonies." 

These various flags, the pine-tree, the rattlesnake, and the stripes. 



\7 

were used according to the tastes of the patriots until June 14th, 1777, 
when within a few days of one year after the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, and two years and more after the war began, upon the 14th 
day of June of that year, the congress of the colonies assembled, and 
by an act then passed, it was enacted and ordained, " That the flag of 
the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, 
and that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field," thus rep- 
resenting a new constellation. The combination of the two colors, 
white and red, was probably suggested by the red flags of the army 
and the white flags of the navy, previously in use. The red color, 
also, which in Rjrnan days was the signal of defence, denoted daring, 
and the white purity. The form of the stripes was suggested by 
Washington himself; "that officers of different grades should wear 
stripes of different colors." It is not defmately known who suggested 
the stars to represent the Union, but the credit is generally given to 
John Adams, the second Preside it of the United States, who was then 
Chairman of the Board of War, as it was then called. 

The resolution of June 14th was announced to the public at large on 
the 3d of September following, and at the surrender of the British 
General, Burgoyne, which occurred in the following October, the new 
flag streamed in the breeze and graced that memorable triumph of the 
infant Republic. On that occasion the thirteen stars were arranged in 
a circle, as we now often see them , in order to better express the idea 
of the union of the States. 

It was not until Ireland, in 1 80 1, was made an integral part of the 
British Kingdom, that the present flag of Great Britain, so well known 
as the Union Jack, was completed ; but it was probably the ancient 
flag of that country that formed the basis of our American banner. 
Various flags had, indeed, at different times, been raised by our colo- 
nial ancestors, but they were not particularly associated with, or at 
least were not incorporated into the destined stars and stripes. It was 
only after Washington had assumed command of a fresh army of the 
Revolution, at Cambridge, January 2d, 1778, that he unfolded before 
them the new flag of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, having 
on one of its corners the red and white crosses of St. George and St. 
Andrew on a field of blue. This was the standard which was borne 
into the city of Boston when it was evacuated by the British troops, 
and was taken possession of by the American Army. Uniting, as it 
thus did, the flags of Britain and America, it showed that the colonists 



i8 

were n a yet prepared to sever the tie that bound them to their Mother 
country. By that union of flags they claimed to be stili a vital and 
substantial part of the Empire of Great Britain, and demanded the 
lights and privileges which such a relation implied. Yet it was by 
these thirteen stripes that they made known the union also of the 
thirteen colonies ; the stars of which declared the purity and innocence 
of their cause, and the stripes of red giving forth defiance to cruelty 
and oppression. 

On the 13th of January, 1794, there having been two more State- 
added to the Union, it was enacted by Congress, "That from and 
after the 1st of May, 1795, the flag of the United States shall be fifteen 
stripes, alternate red and white, and that the Union be fifteen stars, 
white in a blue field." The flag, as thus altered and enlarged, was 
the one which was borne throughout all the contest, upon land and at 
sea, of the war of 181 2. Subsequently it was thought that the flag 
would at length become too large and unwieldy to carry, if a new 
stripe should be added with every freshly admitted State; it was there- 
fore enacted, on the fourth of April, 18 18, " That from and after the 
fourth of July next, the flag of the United States be thirteen horizontal 
stripes, alternate red and white ; that the Union be twenty stars, white, 
in a blue field ; that on the admission of a new State into the Union, 
one star alone be added to the Union of the flag ; and that such ad- 
dition shall take effect on the fourth day of July next succeeding such 
admission. Thus the flag would symbol the Union, as it might be at 
any period of its history, and also as it was in the very hour of its 
birth. It was at the same time suggested that these stars, instead of 
being arranged in a circle, be formed into the shape of a single star, a 
suggestion which we, in our day only occasionally see adopted. In 
fine, no particular order seems at present to prevail with respect to the 
arrangement of the constellation. It seems to be decided as enough 
upon that azure field, the red as emblematic of love, the white of puri- 
ty, and the blue of fidelity, perseverance, vigilance and justice, each 
star signifying the glory of the State represented, and the whole to be 
eloquent forever of a union that must, in the very nature of things, be 
one and inseperable. 

The emblematic significance of the flag has been thus explained : 
"The blue field, like the banner of the Covenanters, showed the 
league of the Colonies against oppression, and like the broad blue can- 
opy of heaven, and the deep blue ocean wide, typified universal be- 



19 

nevolence, friendship and liberty, From the constellation Lyra, 
meaning harmony, was taken the idea of the stars, which, arranged in 
a circle emblematic of eternity, symbolized the perpetuity of the Union, 
while the number and arrangement of the stripes signified the number 
of the States ; their subordination to the Union, and equality among 
themselves. The red, symbol of zeal and courage, and the white, em- 
blematic of purity, showed the fervency and justice of their purpose,** 
How full of symbolic eloquence is that beautiful banner — representative 
of a nation unequaled for rapidity and immensity of growth and accom- 
plishments, its power for good or evil, and lessons of human greatness ! 
Union, harmony, equality, perpetuity, justice, courage, purity, resist- 
ance to oppression, and subordination to legal and just rule, are por- 
trayed in its gleaming folds. 

Thus was the glorious national nag we now hold and defend, de- 
vised and ordained. It was then advanced to the world, as it now is, 
as the Flag of Liberty. It was no holiday toy, gorgeously bedecked 
with gilt and tinsel to catch the favor of the vain. It was a solemn 
National emblem, symbolic of the holy truths and purposes which 
brought together the old Colonial American Congress, and which has 
held together all the Congresses that have succeeded them. 

The progress of our Republic has been little short of a miracle. One 
hundred years ago we were a people numbering only three millions. 
Now we number more than forty millions. Our industries were con- 
fined almost exclusively to the tilage of the soil. Now manufactories 
absorb much of the labor of the country. Our liberties remain unim- 
paired. The bondsmen have been freed from slavery. We have be- 
come possessed of the respect, if not the friendship, of all civilized na- 
tions. Our progress has been great in all the arts, in science, agricul- 
ture, commerce, navigation, mining, mechanics, law, medicine, etc. 
And in general education the progress is likewise encouraging. Our 
thirteen States have become thirty-eight, and eight Territories, includ- 
ing the Indian Territory and Alaska, making a territory extending 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. On the south we have extended to 
the Gulf of Mexico, and in the west from the Mississippi to the Pacific. 
One hundred years ago the cotton gin, the steam-ship, the rail -road. 
the telegraph, the reaping, sowing, and modern printing machine.-, 
and numerous other inventions of scarcely less value to our business 
and happiness, were entirely unknown. In 1776 manufactories scarce- 
ly existed even in name in all this vast, territory. In 1870 more than 



20 

two million of persons were employed in manufactories, producing 
more than two billion one hundred million dollars of products in 
amount annually — nearly equal to our national debt. From nearly the 
whole of the population in 1776 being engaged in that one occupation 
of agriculture, in 1870, so numerous and diversified had become the 
occupations of our people that less than six millions out of more than 
forty millions were so engaged. The extraordinary effect produced in 
our country by a resort to diversified occupations has built a market 
for the products of fertile lands distant from the seaboard, and the 
markets of the world. The American system of locating various and 
extensive manufactories next to the plow and the pasture, and adding 
connecting railroads and steamboats, has produced in our distant in- 
terior country a result noticeable by the intelligent parts of all com- 
mercial nations. The ingenuity and skill of American mechanics have 
been demonstrated at home and abroad in a manner most flattering to 
their pride. But for the extraordinary genius and ability of our me- 
chanics, the achievements of our agriculturists, manufacture and trans- 
portation throughout the country would have been impossible of at- 
tainment. The progress of the miner has also been great. Of coal 
our production was small ; now many millions of tons are mined an- 
nually. So with Iron, which formed scarcely an appreciable part of 
our products half a century ago, we now produce more than the world 
consumed at the beginning of our national existence. Lead, zinc, and 
copper, from being articles of import, we may expect to be large ex- 
porters of in the near future. The development of gold and silver 
mines in the United States and Territories has not only been remark- 
able, but has had a large influence upon the business of all commercial 
nations. Our merchants in the last hundred years have had a success, 
and have established a reputation for enterprise, sagacity, progress, 
and integrity unsurpassed by the people of $lder nationalities. This 
" good name " is not confined to their homes, but goes out upon every 
sea and into every port where commerce enters. 

Never was there since time began such a bound from comparative 
insignificance to substantial greatness. Our story as a nation is the 
very romance of history in this respect. Our trackless wilderness 
exhibits the phenomenon of galaxies ripening into star gems, and as 
each resplendant centre radiates forth other spheres, and pours it's 
lustre towards the common centre, all shadows of the past may well 
flee away, all darkness, in which tribes and races are fearfully waiting 



21 

may well be searched and rifted. Meantime how grand the spectacle 
of Republics bound in one divisionless unit. Though the rebellion, 
like Lucifer, trailed a third part of its States behind its crimson chariot, 
their fall, thank God, was not like Lucifer's, " Never to rise again ! 
Already they have arisen ; already they have glittered through the 
marsh of gory dust that dimmed their lustre ; they have again beamed 
with old celestial brilliancy. It was a stormy midnight that obscured 
them ; but the blue ether is around them once more, and the heavens 
of reconstruction have reclaimed them." 

" The tree 
Whose drooping branches, one by one take root 
Until the forest hides the parent stem . 
Symbols the rise of empires — yet for ours 
Affords no parallel. Its bursting seeds 
Were scattered broadcast by the hand of God. 
Behold the increase ; where on every side, 
From the blue mountains to the bounding main. 
Nestling in valleys, dotting fertile plains ; 
And on the hill-sides shining, crowned with spires, 
Our cities rise ; while down a hundred streams 
Our inland fleets speed laden to the sea. 
Behold the lakes, where once the frail canoe 
Timidly coasted ; lo ! from port to port, 
Trailing their smoky penions through the sky, 
The mighty steamers surging. 

In each zone 
That belts the earth, our star-lit banner shines. 
And every glare sends forth to every shore 
As home returns our freighted argosies ! " 

Let us now consider for a moment the names of those who devised 
and originated our National banner— the Rutleges, the Pinkneys. the 
Jays, the Franklins, the Hamiltons, the JefTersons, the Adamses. 
These men were all officially connected with it, or consulted concern- 
ing it. They were men who had taken their lives in their hands and 
consecrated all their possessions — for what? For the doctrines and 
for the personal fact of liberty, for the right of all mankind to life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, They had just given forth to 



22 

the world a declaration of truth and faith out of which sprang the 
great constitution of our land and upon which they planted this new 
devised flag of our Union. 

The first instance in which the Stars and Stripes were an furled was 
when the Brig Nancy was chartered by the Continental Congress to 
procure military stores in the West Indies, during the latter part of 
1775. While at Porto Rico in July of the ensuing year, the informa- 
tion came that the Colonists had declared their independence, and 
with this information came the description of the flag that had been 
accepted as the national banner. A young man, Captain Thomas 
Manderville, set to work to make one, and successfully accomplished 
it. The flag was unfurled and saluted with thirteen guns. When the 
Brig Nancy was upon her return voyage, she was hemmed in by British 
vessels off Cape May, her officers succeeded in removing all the mu- 
nitions to the shore, and when the last boat put off, a young mail in 
it, John Hancock, jumped into the sea, swam to the vessel, ran up the 
shrouds of the mast and securing the flag, brought it triumphantly to 
the shore, amid the hot fire from a British Man-of-war. 

I The first American flag, however, according to the design and ap- 
/ proval of Congress, was made by Mrs. Elizabeth Ross, of Philadel- 
phia, the city in which liberty was proclaimed ; the birthplace of 
American Independence. Three of her daughters still live to confirm 
this fact, founding their belief, not upon what they saw, for it was 
made many years before they were born, but upon what their mothers 
had often told them. A niece of this lady, Mrs. Margaret Boggs, 
aged ninety -five years, now lives in Germantown, and is" conversant 
of the fact. The fact is not generally known that not only to Phila- 
delphia belongs the honor of flinging the first star-spangled banner to 
the breeze, but to a Philadelphia lady belongs the honour of having 
made it. The house in which it was made still stands, No. 239 Arch 
street, (the old No. being 80) the last of an old row. It is related that 
when Congress had decided upon the design, Col. George Ross and 
Gen. Washington visited Mrs. Ross and asked her to make it, she said, 
" I don't know whether I can, but I'll try," and directly suggested to 
the gentlemen that the design was wrong, in that the stars were six 
cornered, and not five cornered as they should be. This was corrected, 
she made the flag, Congress accepted it, and for half a dozen years 
this lady furnished the Government with all its national flags, having, 



23 

of course, a large assistance. This lady was the wife of Claypole, one 
of the lineal decendenfs of Oliver Cromwell. 

The number and meaning of stars properly placed on our flag are 
briefly and correctly described by the Philadelphia Ledger. It says : 
••The stars represent States of the Union. There are now thirty- 
eight States, and the United States flag of to day bears thirty-eight 
stars, representing the thirty-eight States of the Union at the close of 
The first century of Independence. There is not even a remote proba- 
bility that any more States will be admitted this year, and there is 
no excuse for putting on a greater number. Forty stars are put on for 
supposed convenience of arrangement in cross-rows of five stars each ; 
but a much better arrangement can be made with thirty -eight stars, 
arranged in five rows, of which the central and two outer rows are 
made up of eight stars and the alternate rows of seven stars. 

Who will deny it, when I assert that our glorious banner, our stars 
and stripes, is the most beautiful emblem that streams upon any land 
or floats upon any sea? Its proportions when properly made are per- 
fect, it being just one-half as broad as it is long, and contains seven red 
mul six white stripes of equal breadth, the first and last being red. 
The blue field for the stars is the width and square of the first seven 
stripes. This is called "The Union " and its prototype is pointed to 

the constellation known as the " Lyre, 1 ' signifying harmony. The 
remainder of the flag is designated " the fly." 

Aside from regimental standards, guidons and guide markers, there 
re prescribed for the use of the. United States troops three different 
sizes of national colors. The garrison flag, which is the largest, is 
thirty-six feet long by twenty feet deep, is made of bunting, has 
thirteen stripes (horizontal), seven of which are red and six white. In 
the upper quarter section next the staff is the ;; Union," composed of 
white stars, equal in number to the states, on a blue field one-third 
the length of the entire flag. This flag is expensive and not in gen- 
eral use at the military stations on the Indian frontier, where the greater 
portion of the army is distributed. The next in dimensions and im- 
portance is the storm flag, which takes the place of the other during 
the prevalence of high winds. It is twenty feet by ten on the staff, 
and in other particulars proportioned as, and similar to the garrison 
Mag. The recruiting flag, the last of the three referred to, is nine feet 
ine inches long, by four feet four inches wide, and similar in other 
respects to the other two. Perhaps the most graceful proportions are 



24 



those prescribed for the regimental standard, six feet six inches fly by 
six feet on the pike ; the pike including ferule and spear, being nine 
feet ten inches long. Each regiment has two, one of which is the 
national and the other the regimental colors. They are of silk, with 
yellow fringe, and with cords and .assels, for infantry of blue and 
white silk intermixed, and for artilery red and yellow. 

The artilery regimental colors are yellow, with two crossed cannon 
in the centre, with the letters "U. S." above and the number of the 
regiment below, in a scroll in silk embroidery. The infantry are blue, 
with an eagle in the centre, and otherwise the same as artilery. The 
cavalry standard is like the infantry, except that it is five feet five in- 
ches wide, two feet three inches on the lance -which is nine feet in 
length -and has no cords and tassels. Each company of cavalry car- 
ries a swallow-tailed silk guidon, three feet five inches long to the 
point of tails, fifteen inches to the fork, and two feet two inches deep, 
on a lance nine feet long. Until recently the upper half was red and 
the lower half white; now they are national colors. Camp markers 
are eighteen inches square, white for infantry and red for artilery, on 
poles eight feet in length. 

There is likewise, in regard to the origin of the flag, a somewhat 
poetical account given- refer ring to the times of the Solemn League 
and Covenant in Scotland, when the blue vault of heaven and the jus- 
tice of their cause, there appealed to by the persecuted followers of 
duty furnished the first hint of that splendid device; but it is thought 
that this is mainly a poetical fancy. -The old flag of Scotland forming 
the groundwork of the present British was the Silver cross of St. An- 
drew upon a blue field, over which is now placed first the flag of St. 
Patrick in somewhat mutilated form, and then the red cross of St. 
George. As before stated probably the example furnished our fore- 
fathers with some suggestions on the subject, and if so, the flag of 
Scotland— the same that the Covenanters used with some additions 
upon it, must have had an influence upon their imaginations in forming 
the American flag, but did not, of course, have any more than this. 
It must be admitted that there is considerable beauty in the idea that 
ascribes the origin of our flag to the natural aspect of the starry heav- 
ens as at night revealed to those whose only canopy was the sky, 
whose only covert, caves and secret holes was in the earth, with whom 
men were at war, but with whom heaven from the testimony of their 
own consciences was at peace. This tracing the origin of our flag is 



25 

of somewhat similar character to the expression of New York's crazy 
poet, Macdonald Clarke, when he said : 

11 Night threw her sable mantle o'er the earth 
And pinned it with a star." 

The suffering, the courage, the piety, the undaunted fortitude of the 
Covenanter have to this day endeared him to the minds of all conver- 
sant with his lofty character and his noble mission of steadfastness, and 
that the romance of his history should be in a measure intertwined with 
the legends entertained of our flag's origin is not to be wondered at. 
If it were asked what is the meaning of our flag, could there be any 
more correct or appropriate answer given than that it means just what 
Concord and Lexington meant, that after all is said on the subject' 
nothing can be said fuller than is contained in the glorious revolution- 
ary war and its addendum of the no less glorious Union war — which 
first meant the rising up of a young and mettlesome people against an 
old and villainous tyranny, and latterly the preservation of all that 
was formerly won for life and liberty, and happiness among them. 

In solemn assemblage our fathers had issued to the world that glo- 
rious manifesto, "The Declaration of Independence." A little later, 
that the fundamental principles of liberty might have the best organi- 
zation, they gave to this land our imperishable constitution. Our flag 
means then all that our fathers meant in the Revolutionary war ; it 
means all that the Declaration of Independence meant; it means all 
that the constitution of our people, organized for justice, for liberty 
and for happiness, meant. Our flag carries American ideas, American 
history and American feelings. Beginning wdth the colonies, and 
coming down to our time, in its sacred heraldry, in its glorious insig- 
nia, it has gathered and stored chiefly this supreme idea : "Divine 
right of liberty in man." Every color means liberty; every thread 
means liberty; every form of star and beam, or stripe of light, means 
liberty, not lawlessness; not license, but organized constitutional 
liberty. Our national flag is the safeguard of liberty* Not an atom 
of crown is allowed to go into its insignia. Not a symbol of authority 
in the ruler or chief executive, the President of the United States, is, or 
ever will be permitted to go into it. It was an ordinance of liberty, 
by the people, of the people, and for the people. That it meant, THAT 
it means, and by the blessing of God, that it shall mean to the end of 
times 



26 

And sacred with the names of the dead, 

Its stars are the symbol of union, 
In union they ever shall wave, 

Its white is the emblem of honor, 
Its red is the blood of the brave. 

Success to the flag of our union, 

Let it stream o'er the land and the sea. 

The shades of our heroes are round it, 
Beneath it, the ranks of the free. 

Let us swear we will ever defend it, 

In the trials to come, as of yore, 
Lift it high, a broad beacon of freedom, 

To the world, until time is no more. 

The history of this glorious banner is all on the side of liberty, 
Under it rode Washington and his armies. Before it Burgoyne laid 
down his arms. It waved on the highlands at West Point, and when 
Benedict Arnold, the traitor, would have surendered our valuable 
fortresses and precious legacies, his night was turned to day, and his 
treachery was driven away by the beams of light from our starry ban- 
ner. It cheered our army, driven out from around New York, and in 
their painful pilgramage through New Jersey. It streamed in golden 
light over the soldier's heads at Valley Forge and at Morristown. It 
crossed the icy waters of the Delaware at Trenton, and when its stars 
gleamed in the cold morning with victory, a new day of hope dawned 
on the despondency of this nation, and when at length those long 
seven years of war were drawing to a close, underneath the folds of 
the old starry banner sat Washington, while Cornwallis surrendered 
his hosts at York town, and our Revolutionary struggle ended with 
victory. It waved thus over that whole historic period of victory. It 
cheered the hearty pioneers of the West in all their desperate encoun- 
ters with the savage Indian. It was to them not only a symbol be- 
speaking lofty enterprise, but a comfort visible and within their reach. 
Our States grew up under it, and when our ships began to swarm upon 
the ocean, carrying our commerce in their capacious depths to foreign 
shores ; inspired by the genial flame of liberty, it carried forth with 
them our ideas of liberty, and when Great Britain arrogantly demanded 
her "right " of search upon and within American decks, then up like 
lightning went that flag again, to her meaning more than mere empty 



27 

bravado, as she found to her cost, while every star shone out liberty, 
and every stripe streamed defiance. 

Who has forgotten the gallant fleet of Lake Erie, with its lion-hearted 
commander, Commodore Perry ? The thunders that echoed to either 
shore were responded to by shouts from beneath that fluttering ensign 
which begat them. Those men who went forth in the old ship, 
"Constitution," carried it at their mast-head to battle and to victory. 
Bless the name ! Bless the ship and her historic memory ! 

The Perry s, the Lawrences,' the Biddies, the McDonoughs, the 
Porters, and a host of others, whose names can never die, fought under 
the old flag, for liberty, justice and equality. 

What precious associations then cluster around our flag ? Not only 
have our fathers set up this banner in the name of God over the well- 
won battle fields of the Rovolution, and over the cities and towns 
which they rescued from despotic rule ; but think also where their 
descendents have carried it, and raised it in conquest or protection. 
Through what clouds of smoke and dust has it-passed? What storms 
of shot or shell ? What scenes of fire and blood ? Not alone at Sara- 
toga, at Monmouth, and at Yorktown, but at Lundey's Lane and New 
Orleans, at Buna Vista and Chepultapec. It is the same glorious old 
flag which inscribed with the dying words of Lawrence, "Don't give 
up the ship" was hoisted on Lake Erie by Commodore Perry, just on 
the eve of his great naval victory ; the same old flag which our lamented 
chieftain, Gen. Scott, bore in triumph to the proud city of the Aztecs, 
and planted upon the heights of her national palace. Brave hands 
raised it above the eternal regions of ice in the Arctic seas, and set it 
upon the summit of the lofty mountains in the distant West. Where 
has it not gone, the pride of its friends and the terror of its foes ? What 
countries and what seas has it not visited ? Where has not the Ameri- 
can citizen been able to stand beneath its guardian folds and defy the 
world ? With what joy and pride seamen and tourists have gazed 
upon its stars and stripes, read in it the history of their nation's glory; 
received from it the full sense of security, and drawn from it the inspi- 
ration of patriotism and duty ? 

By it how many have sworn fealty to their country. What bursts of 
magnificent eloquence has it called forth from Webster, from Everett, 
and from others too numerous to mention ? What lyric strains of 
poetry from Drake, Holmes, and others ? How many heroes its folds 
have covered in death ? How many for it have lived? How many 



28 

for it have died? How many living and dying have said in their 
enthusiastic devotion to its honor, like that young wounded sufferer in 
the streets of Baltimore, " Oh ! the flag ! the Stars and Stripes ! " 

"Call it not vain ! They do not err 
Who say that when the Hero dies 
Mute nature mourns her worshipper 
And celebrates his obsequies." 

Wherever that flag has gone it -has been the herald of a better day. 
It has been the pledge of freedom, of justice, of order, of civilization, 
and of Christianity. Tyrants only have hated it, and the enemies of 
mankind have trampled it to earth. All who sigh for the triumphs of 
truth and righteousness, love and honor it. How glorious and shining 
then is alike its sign and destiny ? In ail the world there is not such 
another flag, that carries within its ample folds such grandeur of hope, 
such soul-inspiring emanations of hope as our dear old Americaa flag, 
made by and for liberty, nourished in its spirit and carried in its service 
its priceless value cannot be estimated. 

The Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, a native of South Carolina, and one of 
her most gifted sons, during the later part of the Administration of 
John Quincy Adams, represented the United States at the Capitol of 
Mexico, which was then much distracted by internal dissensions. 
While Mr. Poinsett resided there, the city was captured by one of the 
contending factions, and he and his family incurred no small degree of 
personal danger from the violence of the soldiers, by whom they were 
suspected of affording concealment to certain obnoxious individuals. 
In the height of the nullification controversy after his return, in an 
address delivered to the people of Charleston, the following eloquent 
passage occurs : 

" Wherever I have been, I have been proud of being a citizen of 
this great republie, and, in the remotest corners of the earth, have 
walked erect and secure under that banner whi<*h our opponents would 
tear down and trample under foot. I was in Mexico when that city 
was taken by assault. The house of the American Ambassador was 
then, as it ought to be, the refuge of the distressed and persecuted ; it 
was poinced out to the infuriated soldiery as- a place filled with their 
enemies. They rushed to the attack. My only defense was the flag 
of my country, and it was flung out at the instant that hundreds of 
muskets were levelled at us. Mr. Mason and myself placed ourselves 



2 9 

beneath its waving folds. We did not blanch, for we felt strong in the 
protecting arm of the mighty republic. We told them that the flag 
that waved over us was the banner of that nation to whose example 
they owed their liberty, and to whose protection they were indebted 
for their safety. The scene changed as by enchantment, and the same 
men who were on the point of attacking my house and menacing the 
inhabitants cheered the flag of our country, and placed sentinals to 
protect it from outrage. ' Fellow citizens, in such a moment as that, 
would it have been any protection to me and mine to have proclaimed 
myself a Carolinian ? Should I have been here to tell you this tale, if 
I had hung out the Palmetto and the single star ? ' Be assured that 
to be respected abroad, we must maintain our place in the 
Union!" 

Our flag was never on all the earth made to stoop to despotism. 
Never, did I say? Alas ! Yes once. Only to that worst of despotism 
slavery has it bowed. But the bitterness of that long deadly strife is 
over, and its animosities may well be consigned to forgetfulness. 

In this Centennial Year of our Republic an era of good feeling and 
forgiveness should, in common, with the great pulse of the American 
people, pervade all o'ur hearts. The flag of Fort Sumpter, which 
went down in sorrow and shame, has long since gone back to its 
rightful place in power. 

When our banner went down, with its ancient renown, 

Betrayed and degraded by treason, 
Did they think as it fell what a passion would swell 

Our hearts when we asked them the reason ? 

Altho' causeless the blow that at Sumpter laid low, 

That flag, it was freed for the morrow ; 
And a thousand more flew for the one that fell true 

As traitors have found to their sorrow. 

'Twas in flashes of flame, it was brought to a shame, 

'Till then unrecorded in story, 
But in flashes as bright it rose to our sight, 

And floated o'er Sumpter in glory. 

In a speech delivered at the great Union meeting, in 1861, by the 
late Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times, he stated 
that during the attack on Fort Sumpter a report came to him that 



So 

the flag on the morning after the fight was half-mast. He asked 
Major Anderson, the gallant hero of Sumpter, (peace be to his 
memory), if that report was true, and he replied there was not 
a word of truth in it. He said that during the firing one of 
the halyards was shot away and the flag in consequence dropped 
down a few feet. The rope caught in the staff and could not be 
reached, so that the flag could not be either lowered or hoisted, and, 
said the Major, "God Almighty nailed that flag to the flag-staff, and 
I could not have lowered it if I had tried. ' ' 

The South, during the rebellion, used their several State flags. In 
March, 1861, the Confederate Congress adopted the so-called ''stars 
and bars," composed of three horizontal bars of equal width, the 
middle one white, the others red, with a blue union containing nine 
white stars arranged in a circle. The resemblance of this to the 
" Stars and Stripes " led to confusion and mistakes in the field, and, 
in September, 186 1, a battle flag was adopted, a red field charged 
with a blue saltier, with a narrow border of white, on which were 
displayed thirteen white stars. In 1863 the " Stars and Bars " were 
supplanted by a flag with a white field, having the battle flag for a 
union. The flag of 1863 was found deficient in service, it being 
liable to be taken for a flag of truce; and on February 4th, 1865, the 
outer half of the field beyond the union was covered with a vertical 
red bar. This was the last flag of the Confederacy. 

The committee to whom was referred the subject of the Confederate 
flag, we are told, seemed not altogether unconscious of the influence 
of the stars and stripes upon the national sentiment, and in their re- 
port thus ingeniously attempted to weaken it. The repQrt says: 
"Whatever attachment may be felt, from association, for the 'stars 
and stripes ' (an attachment, which your committee may be permitted 
to say, they do not all share), it is manifest that in inaugurating a new 
government we cannot," said the committee, "retain the flag 
of the government from which we have withdrawn with any pro- 
priety or without encountering very obvious practical difficulties. 
There is no propriety in retaining the ensign of a government which, 
in the opinion of the States composing this Confederacy, had become 
so oppressive and injurious to their interests as to require their separa- 
tion from it. It is idle to talk of keeping the flag of the United States 
when we have voluntarily seceded from them. It is superfluous to 
dwell upon the practical difficulties which would flow from the fact 



3i 

of two distinct and probably hostile governments both employing the 
same or very similar flags. It would be a political and military soli- 
eism. It would produce endless confusion and mistakes. It would 
lead to perpetual disputes as to the glories of the old flag* We must 
bear in mind that the battles of the Revolution, about which our fond- 
est and proudest memories cluster, were not fought beneath its folds; 
and that although in more recent times in the war of 1812, and in the 
war of Mexico, the South did win her fair share of glory, and shed 
her full measure of blood under its guidance and in its defence, we 
think the impartial page of history will preserve and commemorate 
the fact more imperishably than a mere piece of striped bunting. 
When the Colonies achieved their independence of the Mother-coun- 
try, which, up to the heart they fondly called her, they did not desire 
to retain the British flag or any thing at all similar to it. Yet under 
that flag they had been planted and matured. Under that flag they 
had fought in their infancy for their very existence agairrst more than 
one determined foe. Under it they had repelled the relentless savage, 
and carried it further and further into the decreasing wilderness as 
the standard of civilization and religion. Under it the youthful Wash- 
ington won his spurs in the memorable and unfortunate expedition of 
Braddock; and Americans helped to plant it on the heights of Abra- 
ham, where the immortal Wolfe fell, covered with glory, in the arms 
of victory. But our forefathers, when they separated themselves from 
Great Britain (a separation not on account of their hatred of the Eng- 
lish Constitution, or of English institutions, but in consequence of the 
tyrannical and unconstitutional rule of Lord North's administration), 
and because their destiny beckoned them on to independent expam 
sion and achievements, cast no lingering, regretful looks behind. 
They were proud of their race and lineage, proud of their heritage in 
the glories and genius and language of old England, but they were 
influenced by the spirit of the motto of the great Hampden: Vestigia 
nulla retrorsum* They were determined to build up a new power 
among the nations of the world. They therefore did not attempt ' to 
keep the old flag.' We think it good to imitate them in this compara- 
tively little matter, as well as to emulate them in greater and more 
important ones." 

The committee therefore recommended a new flag for the Confed* 
erate States, which was adopted. This consisted of a red field with a 
white space extending horizontally through the centre and equal in 



32 

width to one-third the width of the flag, the red spaces above and 
below being the same width as the white. The Union blue extended 
down through the white space but terminated at the lower red one, 
In the blue were the stars corresponding in number to the States in 
the Confederacy. The three colors— red, white and blue are the true 
republican colors. "In heraldry they are emblematic of the three 
great virtues, valor, purity, truth," reported the committee, while 
they added, "the colors contrast admirably and are lasting." 

Under our starry banner we can with perfect safety roam to the 
uttermost parts of the earth; if we go to Constantinople and a mob 
should threaten us, that banner shines like lightning out of heaven and 
we are safe. If we go to Africa's sunny clime and skirt its coasts, the 
colors of our country when exhibited make us safe. 

In England, France or Russia, an American citizen, under the pro- 
tection of the American flag, is safe. It has found on the wide ocean, 
in the Indian Islands, in Sumatra, in Japan, in China, and in all the 
world no enemies, either barbarian or civilized, that dared to touch it 
with their polluted hands, and all nations recognize that the United 
States, under its starry banner, throws the shield of its protection over 
the humblest and weakest of its people, and vindicates the rights of 
the poor and powerless as faithfully as those of the rich and powerful 
— that under its frank and fearless guidance and protection naturalized 
citizens must be protected abroad, and at every hazard and sacrifice, 
as though they were native born. Our flag speaks in living tones of 
thunder and says, ' ; The nation whose symbol I am are foreigners or 
the descendants of foreigners; their fathers established by arms their 
right to be called a nation. It remains for it to establish the right to 
welcome to its shores all who are willing, by oath of allegiance, to 
become American citizens. Perpetual allegiance, as claimed abroad, 
is only another name for perpetual bondage, and would make all 
slaves to the soil where first they saw the light. The national ceme- 
teries prove how faithfully these oaths of fidelity to their adopted land 
have been sealed in the life blood of thousands. Should it not then 
be faithless to the dead if it did not protect their living brethren in the 
full enjoyment of that nationality for which, side by side with the 
native born, its soldiers of foreign birth laid down their lives." All 
honor and praise to the brave boys in blue, whether native or foreign 
born, who marched to the sound of the drum and shrill notes of the 
fife, and carried the old flag, bearing every one of its stars and stripes 



33 

and all its insignia into our national capital, until Washington seemed 
a very forest in which every tree supported the American flag, and 
when that was done, throughout the length and breadth of the land, 
every loyal heart uttered the prayer. God bless the brave men that 
went forth from home to save from shame and disgrace our national 
flag, bequeathed us by our fathers! Thank God, the Union is saved, 
never to be destroyed! 

"Success to the flag of our nation, 

Its folds all around us be spread! 
Emblazoned with deeds of the valiant, 

And crowned with acts of the dead." 
Thank God, we can say, in the language of the immortal Webster, 
in his speech concerning the Union— one of the noblest passages that 
ever issued from the uninspired lips or pen of man — "When my eyes 
shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in "heaven, may I 
not see it shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once 
glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent, and on 
a land rent with civil feuds or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood. 
Let this last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous 
ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, 
still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their origi- 
nal lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, 
bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What is alt 
this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, * Liberty first 
and union afterward, ' but everywhere spread all over in characters of 
living light, blazing in all its ample folds as they float over the sea 
and over the land, and in every wind under the heavens, that 
other sentiment dear to every American heart, « Liberty and Union, 

NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE!' " 

" Dear banner of my native land! ye gleaming silver stars, 
Broad, spotless ground of purity, crossed with four azure bars, 
Clasped by the hero-father's hand, watched over in his might, 
Through battle hour and day of peace, bright morn and moonless night, 
Because within your clustering folds he knew you surely bore 
Dear Freedom's hope for human souls to every sea and shore! 
Oh precious flag! beneath whose folds such noble deeds are done, 
The Dear Old Flag! the Starry Flag! The Flag of Washington. 

" Unfurl bright stripes! shine forth clear stars! swing outward to the breeze, 
Go bear your message to the wilds, go tell it on the seas; 
That poor men sit within your shade, and rich men in their pride; 
That beggar boys and statesmens' sons walk 'neath you side by side; 
You guard the school-house on the green, the church iipon the hill, 
And fold your precious blessings round the cabin by the rill; 
While weary hearts from evrry land beneath the shining sun 
Find work, and rest, and home, beneath the Flag of Washington. 

"And never, never on the earih, however brave they be, 
Shall friends or foes bear down this great proud standard of the free. 
Though they around its staff may pour red blood in rushing waves, 
And build beneath its starry folds great pyramids of graves; 
For God looks out, with sleepless eye, upon his childrens' deeds, 
And sees, through all their good and ill, their sufferings and their needs; 
And he will watch and he will keep, 'till human rights have won, 
The Dear Old Flag! the Starry Flag! the Flag of Washington." 



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